On Thursday, Dmitry Afanasyev, a defense lawyer in the trial, told reporters of lawlessness against the accused. Kommersant reports new details of the case. According to the newspaper, a prosecution witness gave conflicting evidence. The witness said he had seen one of the accused at the wheel of a minivan near the mosque, not far from the place where Mr. Yandarbiyev was murdered. But the rented car had tinted windows. When asked by the lawyer how he had managed to remember the license number of the car, the witness said he had been robbed at a marketplace some ten years ago, and he had been very suspicious since that time.

The source told Kommersant that the trial was slow and boring, with judges sparing no time to establish completely irrelevant details. In his opinion, the judges are biased. For example, a defense lawyer was not allowed to ask the prosecution about methods used during the interrogation of the accused.

“The impression is awful. The trial is terribly boring, with long pauses. But the most frightening is that whatever the prosecution and judges are doing, there is the impression that the case is a foregone conclusion… The impression that the judge already knows what he will say in the end, which puts strong pressure on both the defense and the accused,” he stressed.

Earlier this week, the State Duma held a closed meeting to discuss the issue. Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov reported on the Qatar case. His report lasted about 15 minutes. Quoting its source in the Duma, Kommersant says the main point of Mr. Saltanov’s report was that the Russians were not guilty. “He spoke about measures taken by the Russian Foreign Ministry. According to Mr. Saltanov, consultations are being held with Qatari authorities. He also said that the Russian Foreign Ministry and a number of law enforcement agencies had analyzed every step of the arrested Russians, and concluded that they could not have killed Yandarbiyev,” the source said. According to another Duma deputy, Mr. Saltanov gave some details of the arrest. “Our diplomatic residence was stormed, in violation of international conventions,” he said.

Former Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yanderbiyev was killed in a car bombing in Doha on February 13. On February 19, Qatari authorities arrested three Russian citizens on suspicion of involvement in the assassination. Later they released one of the arrested Russians, who had diplomatic immunity. First Secretary of the Russian Embassy in Qatar Alexander Fetisov returned to Russia on March 24. The other two Russians were indicted on February 26.

The arrested Russian citizens said they had been tortured into confessing to the murder of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. In particular, they said they had been attacked with dogs and beaten, in violation of the New York Convention of 1984, to which both Russia and Qatar are parties.